heywoodu

Ah yeah, Grant Holloway! He'd very much deserve the gold based on performances of course, but also he always comes across super friendly and 'sportsmanlike', plus he isn't one of those big stars who feels the need to avoid almost any competition, so we often get to see him in action. I'd find a medal for Letsile Tebogo really cool as well, especially so short after he lost his mother. Less unique, but still nice would be Steven Gardiner, because his running style is just....well, absolute perfection.

Meanwhile this week Kimberley Le Court Pienaar has shown again, but this time even more, that a rare medal for Mauritius is far from impossible. It would be their 2nd ever, but since in theory there's a chance for their 1st gold ever (and again, I would like to stress that does not mean I see her as one of the big favourites), I thought maybe it'd still be worth to keep an eye on her in this thread

Damn, the new shoes are finally starting to work in the 800m as well apparently. Especially Attaoui's race was...interesting. Destroying a decent PB by well over two full seconds in a single race, alrighty

Question 110: France will win an individual medal in either men's or women's event. Either the men's or women's...if they win a medal in both, is it a yes or a no?

That by itself is already easily enough to say it's not a lock. Genuine 'locks' (as far as they exist) don't lose in the months before the Olympics, at all. They win, and do so by big margins, every single time.

Given her recent form, it'd be great if she can win a medal, period. If Fanny Blankers-Koen were still alive, she definitely wouldn't be worried about her four gold medal female record

Daniel Muñoz must be one of the dumbest players there is? Walking away from a normal tackle, no problem at all, and then while walking away simply elbowing a Uruguayan player in the chest in order to get his second yellow

The real hockey, that is

Even Gary Neville said there was no way this was a penalty, that says quite a lot. Although not sure this was the worst decision, there was also the free kick at the end of the match, where an English player (Stones? Not sure) pulled Aké down.....and got a free kick for doing so (followed by a yellow for Van Dijk who protested that decision, as he as captain should be allowed to do, the whole point is that captains can go to the referee instead of just everyone). Not to mention several moments where an English player went down, grabbing his face or something, despite nothing really being hit (definitely not the face). Oh well, the main problem was of course still that the team simply wasn't good enough and wasted the few chances they had. Like a very promising attack ending because a simple pass goes in between Simons and Dumfries and an Englishman picks it up

Well, vamos España And this referee, jesus christ on a stick. Although of course the Dutch team is also simply not good enough.

Ref also missed basic maths I think? 2 minutes added time, what the hell

This referee must be somewhat confused?

Ouch, Kane kicks Dumfries and hurts his own foot.

Bellingham lays down because...someone took away his ball.

Well, yeah, he is. Both are, very clearly, there are two mentally very clearly unstable people (which is not really their fault, they're old!) running for freaking president. But that isn't stopping anyone

So it's not even coincidence, that's cool

Hence 'usually', Beijing was the exception Most won medals for Canada at Winter Olympics: 2022: Bronze 2018: Gold 2014: Gold/silver 2010: Gold 2006: Silver 2002: Gold/bronze 1998: Gold 1994: Silver 1992: Silver 1988: Bronze Anyhow, awesome to see they reached the semi's here, too bad Argentina is just...well, a different level, I suppose, I would have loved to see Canada win the match.

Except for the winter, where bronze is usually not the main colour for Canada

Ugh. Sports and their weird rules

Wait, what? Isn't he liked 10th in the world or so?

If track is a thing for them, alright. But if an athlete would only do the road race plus the time trial, I'd assume any athlete would prefer going for both than only for the road race (especially from the countries that refused a time trial spot, other than Australia the "participating is more important than winning" motto applies to basically all of them). It's 8 days later like you said, not like the time trial is going to mess up someone's road race chances (especially since as far as I know, it's not like you're obligated to stay in the village in the mean time). Anyhow, as long as the choices were made by the athletes and not the NOC's, alright

To be honest, for most of those countries you can genuinely wonder: why? Unless for some odd reason the riders themselves decided that.

Let's go

Wait, a single ranking will be made based on matches played against entirely different opponents? That's hilariously ridiculous

Vingegaard wins the sprint, although Pogacar clearly had an issue with his bike/gears.